Decarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of killing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, told his family that he fatally stabbed her on a train because he thought she was able to read his thoughts, according to his sister, as his disturbing statements from behind bars were revealed.
Brown, 34, was seen on surveillance video randomly attacking Zarutska, 23, from behind while she sat quietly on a Charlotte train, scrolling through her phone, on August 22. The shocking and disturbing video has left many people heartbroken and outraged, raising serious concerns about safety on public transit in the Democrat-led city and leaving the country coming to terms with the tragedy.
Shocking Reason
Now, Brown has spoken to his family for the first time since his arrest and he gave a shocking reason behind committing the crime. Brown said he killed Zarutska because he thought she was able to read his mind.
His sister, Tracey Brown, said that her older brother once attacked her in 2022, biting her and breaking down a door during the incident.
She shared that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and often told her he believed the government had placed a chip inside him. "A person that is hearing voices in their head and believes the world is against them, they're going to break. And I think that night he broke," she told CNN.
Chilling audio from a jailhouse call between Brown and his sister reveals his confused and unsettling attempt to explain the attack. In the recording, made on August 28 — just six days after the murder and later obtained by the Daily Mail — Brown insists it wasn't really him but "the material in his body" that killed Iryna.
"I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I don't even know the lady. I never said not one word to the lady at all. That's scary, ain't it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?" Brown can be heard saying.
Tracey then asks, "Out of all people, why her? She's from the Ukraine, she's from Russia, and they had a war going on against the United States, so I'm just trying to understand, of all people, why her?"
Brown replies: "They just lashed out on her, that's what happened. Whoever was working the materials, they lashed out on her. That's all there is to it. Now they really gotta investigate what my body was exposed to... Now they gotta do an investigation as to who was the motive behind what happened."
Major Mental Illness
Tracey's mother told CNN that she had desperately tried to have Brown admitted to a long-term mental health facility. But despite her efforts, she explained, she wasn't able to do it because she wasn't his legal guardian.
Tracey said her brother's condition worsened after his release from prison in 2022, where he had served five years for armed robbery.
"He didn't seem like himself," she recalled, explaining that he struggled to hold normal conversations, became aggressive, and couldn't keep a steady job. She believes the state failed him, stressing that he was "not safe" to be living freely in the community.
"He was a high risk. He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society. We know what he has been dealing with the last three years. And now an innocent woman is dead," she told the Mail.
On January 19, he was arrested after calling 911 during a welfare check, claiming his brain was being controlled by a microchip.
"Brown wanted officers to investigate this 'man-made' material that was inside of his body," his arrest affidavit states.
"Officers advised Brown that the issue was a medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do," it continues. At that point, Brown became enraged and was arrested, charged with "misuse of the 911 system."
At a hearing on January 21, Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes reviewed Brown's case but decided to release him on cashless bail, relying on a "written promise" that he would return for a future court date. The judge also ordered a psychiatric evaluation, but according to Tracey, "they pushed it back for a year and a half."
"He was seeking help. He called 911 multiple times. Instead of talking to him, they thought charging him was going to help," she said, frustrated by how the system handled her brother's situation.
